Saints have to be recognised as the benchmark in superleague.
They have had a continuing will to win at all costs for many seasons . No matter who the coach is or what players come & go there is a need, a will, & an attitude throughout the club that carries them through most games. Bending the rules doesn't matter to Saints because the team are confident that the ref won't punish every infringement.
Incidentally, was the Sironen try off a forward pass ? It looked forward from the font of all knowledge ,the South stand.

W71 ,when you look at Saints though, they have this knack of getting players who are committed to the "cause". They don't even necessarily get the best players but they get the best out of them.

None is the answer to that

Have a day off. Are you saying Bettison is a better winger than Ashton? LMS better than Vaughan?

It's the environment and the constant pursuit of the highest standards. They attract ambitious players who want to win the title (rather than players who want to get the largest contract). Players are then absorbed into the existing winning culture. They also have very strong leaders on the pitch who lead by example.

Meanwhile we say things like "I’ve got to be happy with the shift they put in" whilst selecting Drinkwater, Dudson, Mata'utia at al week in week out, giving journeyman players long contracts and then be surprised why we don't win.

Soft underbelly? Pack "too nice"? Embarrassing comments. At Wilderspool we used to be a hard side. We are powder puffs now. Not a hint of menace in any forward.

Unless we change this we will never progress. Anyone inside the club who makes an excuse or accepts where we are in the league is part of the problem.

True. Nothing in the world stopping us from trying to emulate what they do with respect to bending the rules. They are excellent at it. Better than throwing our arms theatrically up at the play the ball each tackle and blaming the ref.

Walker was also fresh legs against a team who'd played for 50 minutes against Clark by that point. I still agree that Walker and Philbin changed the momentum and intensity for us, but that too allowed Clark more leg room.

This is all skills work leading to a very flat attack. Stripping defenders with ease.

They also have a lightening line speed when defending which limits the opponents attack.

They also found the ground when kicking for territory, we usually find a player.

That could have been a LOT worse. For all the errors in the first 20+ minutes the defence hung in there. I was surprised they only got 2 tries in that period given how long they were on our line for.
I’m always reluctant to point a finger at a referee, so I will make only 1 point. The Saints player who broke from the scrum so early that he was in our line before the ball was could (and probably should) have been sin binned for a professional foul.
It was a really intense game that felt like a play off match and Saints were hanging on like a drowning man by the end.
Yes we lost but given everything that has happened so far this season I was fearful of a massacre.
If Williams is fit next week I would play him and Hayes together makin our101st HB pairing this season. Drinkwater is done I’m afraid.

Yes

Good to see not all Saints fans are one-eyed.

Am joking lol

At the end of the day, they are the best and we had the chance to take them to GP, with the Wrench break. Taking out the Russell, Ashton, Walker chances, which good teams convert, that chance we were in the backfield and should convert, shirt pull or not.

Neither team were near their best, but there are green shoots.

The problem is, if we do sneak into the 6, we have the daunting task of going to either Wigan, Saints or Catalan. So I don’t expect to make an impact on the playoffs, but we need to make it and give ourselves a crack at the big boys

Cats will finish 2nd so we will (should) finish 6th.
We will have Saints away and then away at Wigan or KR.
We will face Catalan or Saints in the final.
I think.
Yes we will beat Wigan/KR.

I`ll have a pint of whatever you are drinking Duckie.

Cheers.

Well, Salford will have to win big and we will have to lose big next week if we are to fluff out. If there was any team I'd like to play away at (from the top 4) it woulds be Saints.

Does anyone know last nights attendance ?

If there was a choice to play any team in the six home or away I’d pick saints away. Can’t wait.

12,855

I don't think that's quite right EW if we lose and they win we're out.

i think for a new coach coming in, there were alot of positives to take out of this game.

of course were not as good as saints.. if we were, we wouldn't have to be constantly sacking coaches and replacing players on mass.

But as far as this season goes, its probably over very soon.

Fair point this, Chambers is essentially in pre-season mode trying to effect change while still preparing for matches. It just brings back that frustration of the inaction by the board back in the summer. We had 2 spells where we had a week off, either side of the Wakefield and Catalan fixtures, when everyone knew Powell was going and ultimately it was about money (allegedly).

We could have had a 6 week mini-pre-season, with 2 matches (one very winnable) in the middle, and maybe been better prepared to get in the 6 with games to spare and have the chance to rest and rotate at that point. Instead we didn’t pull the trigger, wasted a chance to win at Wakefield, changing coach with a 5 day turnaround, essentially rendering the Catalan game useless.

Since then, we’ve competed in every fixture. Won’t be happy with the losses to Leeds and Salford but we had chances to win both of those games, same as Friday.

I’m not sure it comes in a liquid.

As annoying as the last four years must have been, surely you'd want to see that extended for one more year than seeing Wigan preening about the place? They are bad enough without actually being successful.

Saints are worse, even before you take into account any sort of lack of grace or humility in victory.

Their utter lack of self awareness is hilarious, the hypocrisy of going on about all the messing around in the ruck, slow ptb and refereeing ruining the game, if all those aspects where cleared up then Saints would be the biggest losers, its like Turkeys voting for Christmas.

Pies have always been scum but St Helens is like New Labour portraying one thing but being something else.